Virginia is as bright and witty as she is modest and pure-minded; there
is nothing in the world that Mr. Vansittart detests so much as a coarse
or immodest _lady_. So charmed is he with Virginia, that he remains
close to her side the whole evening, to the surprise of every one else.
No one ever saw him devote himself to a girl before. He stays until the
very last. As he walks away from the door, after lighting his cigar, he
reflects to himself: "If any earthly power could induce me to marry, it
would be a girl like that. But," resolutely, "nothing could." As
Virginia wends her way upstairs to bed, she says to herself with a heavy
sigh, "Why should he abuse marriage? How happy he might make some
woman!"
Virginia is the daughter of a clergyman. Father and mother are both
dead. She has a brother in the army, and a sister married to a country
rector. Her uncle, Mr. Hayward, has adopted her. She is clever and
accomplished. She has both passion and imagination. Some of her ideas
are original; she hates common-placeness, but she is also imbued with
the attribute possessed by every charming woman, the love of
approbation. This prevents her doing or saying anything _outre_ or
unconventional; this makes her careful of her appearance and fond of
fair apparel; this makes the evidence of admiration from the other sex
exceedingly agreeable to her; this causes her to adopt a manner towards
them that induces jealous women to call her a coquette.
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